Posts made by srh-hashmi

The writer concludes his article claiming "The 2018 elections is likely to bring martial law without martial law. Parts of the deep state see as ideal a weak coalition government with establishment-friendly Imran Khan as prime minister. However CPEC, Kashmir, US, and Afghan policy — and nuclear weapons of course — would firmly remain within the army’s domain. "

However, it is a fact that the PML-N/PPP combine has brought the country to a state where a foreign minister was appointed reluctantly near-about the end of the term, despite country having problems with neighbours and elsewhere and the country remains without an active finance minister despite being in dire financial straits. Moreover, needlessly fiddling with the Khatm-e-Nabuwat concept, the government created a problem and then the Federal Interior Minister let a small group of under two thousand men travel all the way from Punjab and to keep the country's capital occupied for over three weeks, and let the small protest - which he claimed could be finished in two hours - develop into something of a countrywide protest which it could not control even with the help of Rangers.

And while the armed forces have done a lot controlling the militancy and terrorism in Pakistan, the civilian government did absolutely nothing in respect of its duties under the National Action Plan. like controlling and regulating madrasas, fully developing NACTA and evolving an ideology to defeat the one propagated by the extremists and terrorists.

And that is not all. Even the much-delayed national population census was conducted by the government at court's pressure and came up with dubious population figures especially in respect of Karachi, by excluding people in the newly developed localities from the census. And it was the same with the local governments for which elections were held only after court pressure. And both the Sindh and Punjab governments defanged the local governments by clawing back most of their powers and the financial resources. And in keeping with other sectors, conditions in respect of public health and education are most deplorable, and children are reported to be suffering from stunted physical and mental growth due to insufficient food intake, while large number of adults also get only half-fed, with an increasing number of them committing suicides.

And while Shahbaz Sharif develops major cities in Punjab as show-pieces - with projects loaded with hefty commissions - the rest of Punjab remains neglected. And the situation in much worse in Sindh where even the provincial capital had been turned into a huge rubbish dump - from which it is recovering only at a painfully slow pace - and the situation in the rest of Sindh is much the same. And Balochistan fares no better. Only KP offers some promise.

The only thing that the PML-N and PPP governments seem to excel in is corruption, more corruption and nothing but the corruption.

In these circumstances, if the country is to survive, we have to get rid of deeply-entrenched Sharifs and Zardaris and find alternate leadership, or else the country is doomed. And such a change will prove a boon and not a bane for the country. Indeed, it is the only way out of the mess that we are in.

This is a fact that beyond the founding leaders, we did not have any leader in Pakistan worth the name. Unfortunately for us, the founding leaders did not stay with us for long and after their demise, natural of forced, we ended up with various clowns who were not even funny, and some of them positively harmful, who damaged Pakistan substantially, even to the extent of breaking it up. And this goes for those both in and out of uniform.

And of course the one who started it all was Ayub Khan whose derailed the democratic process. Als, his hatred and mistreatment of Bengalis created circumstances for the separation of East Pakistan, and his nominee General Yahya Khan managed to accomplish the mission with the greatest of damage, bringing to Pakistan the dubious distinction of staging the largest surrender in the Muslim history. And again, it was Ayub Khan - and his son - whose victimization of Urdu-speaking people created ethnic problems in Karachi which, in time, gave rise to APMSO and MQM, nearly three decades after the partition, during which period Urdu-speaking community had displayed no ethnic sentiments.

And while Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto made a deal with the Indian authorities - by agreeing to relax Pakistan's stand on Kashmir - to bring to Pakistan the armed forces personnel and others who had gone there from West Pakistan. However, others who had migrated from India and went to East Pakistan because of its close proximity, were abandoned to be massacred or forced to languish in subhuman conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps. The fact is that these people were as much Pakistanis as those from the western wing. In fact, some of them were even brought to West Pakistan and accommodated in Punjab - which means the government accepted their right to come here - but the process was discontinued later even though Rabita Alam-e-Islami had offered to provide funds and other facilities for bringing them to West Pakistan. And some of these stranded Pakistanis who managed to come to Pakistan through their own arrangements, are facing all sorts of difficulties even today, including non-issuance of national identity cards for self and children and other problems that the absence of these basic document creates.

Coming back to the main topic, which is the leadership in Pakistan, instead of just accepting our misfortune of not having any leader worth the name after the departure of the founding ones, the writer has managed to invent some, even though at his age, he ought to have known better than that.

The writer claims "Benazir was the only politician who did not seek revenge".

However, I remember that one of the operations against MQM was started by her government during which all that was needed was someone to be young and Urdu-speaking to be picked up, even demanded ransom and tortured and implicated in criminal cases if the relatives were unable to pay up. "Cheera" was the most popular means of torture and even killings during fake encounters were quite common. And referring to these staged encounter during those days, Benazir Bhutto claimed proudly in her imperfect Urdu "Hum unsay maqablay kareen gay aur unko marain gay" and happiness on her face while uttering these words left one in no doubt as to how much she enjoyed it.

And if Benazir was not vengeful towards rivals like her father was, it could be because of multiple factors, one being the plight of her father, and the other the writer identified as her being 'pragmatic enough to realize it was better to have foes enter the PPP tent, rather than sniping at her from outside'.

Also, Benazir wanted power at all costs and for her, all other things were secondary and of no significance, making perhaps apathy the main cause of the lack of sentiments for revenge within her in certain cases. I remember her joint press conference with the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. During the press conference, someone asked the question "What about Kashmir problem?". And Rajiv Gandhi retorted "What problem, I don't see any problem". And then Rajiv Ghandhi looked around, smiling, and no further question was raised on the topic. And together with Rajiv, Benazir also looked around, smiling just as beautifully, saying nothing.

Where I mainly disagree with the writer is his discrimination even among scoundrels. He is real heavy-handed with the uniformed ones, and blames them even for the crimes they did not commit. As opposed to that, he tries to make light of the grave crimes of others, making them look more like innocent victims. To prove my point, I quote the following paragraph from his article:

"Thus, anyone confused and angered by the military’s recent intervention on the side of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah should see this shocking snub to the elected government in the light of recent events. I can imagine the security establishment’s anger at having been all but named by PML-N leaders as the prime mover behind Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification and his family’s humiliation. It would not surprise me at all if it decided to cut the Sharifs down to size".

So, the astronomic corruption by Sharifs is forgotten and forgiven and Panama papers trial is presented as armed forces setting scores with them. This is really the limit.

As for 'Labbbaik' tehreek, well, it was not the military which 'forced' Sharif government to fiddle around with the Khatm-e-Nabuyat belief, and to mishandle the issue when it was found out. And with Sharifs ruling both in Punjab and and at the federal level, how come around 1,500 protesters managed to travel all the way from Punjab to Islamabad and paralyze the capital for over three weeks, despite Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal claiming that he could finish it in two hours. And only some days back, Ahsan Iqbal had thundered, calling the presence of military-officered Rangers at the accountability court a challenge to state's writ.

And while Gen. Musharraf's treatment of Nawaz Sharif could not be termed to be exactly the last word in courtesy and good manners, it was definitely better than what Gen. Zia did to Bhutto. And the way Nawaz Sharif dismissed Gen. Musharraf, and refused landing permission to the scheduled flight carrying him was definitely much more than clumsy'.

The real masterpiece is the paragraph where Irfan Husain says "While the reason for his anti-PPP animus is unclear, it is a fact that large numbers of the elites across the country loathe the party for its secular, pro-poor rhetoric."

While elites may loathe the Peoples Party for its secular rhetoric, their loathing of the party for pro-poor rhetoric doesn't make sense because every one with a functioning brain knows just how sympathetic the party is towards the poor. The stately feast that the Peoples Party state delegation had at Thar where it had gone to investigate the famine conditions there does not exactly establish its pro-poor credentials. Stories about a third of population lacking sufficient food intake, and children having stunted physical and mental growth because of lack of sufficient food, people dying of starvation, absence of even the basic health and education facilities, and courts pressuring Peoples Party to provide clean drinking water, and its corruption which eats up to seventy-five percent of the project cost could hardly establish Peoples Party reputation as pro-poor.

Irfan Husain really grieves at, and mourns the suffering of Sharifs, Bhuttos and the like. However, he does not show the same degree of concern for the above twenty crore people of Pakistan who suffer, and suffer badly due to the insatiable greed, corruption and bad governance of these 'elites'.

What's at stake if the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and moves its embassy there is the credibility of declining super power America, not only in the Muslim world but also in the European capitals which have warned it against such a thoughtless and harmful move.

And what is more, it will finish off even the sudden burst of goodwill which is seen among Saudi Arabia and its allies towards US and Israel because after such a harmful step, it would become very difficult for them to justify continued relations with them.

In order to justify the much-talked-about alliance between rising Saudi Crown Prince MBS, his allies, and the US and Israel, it is being claimed that the package against Iran also has as an objective the establishment of a Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders, with Israelis vacating the illegal settlements on payment of compensation and on provision of alternate housing to them in Israel proper. In these circumstances, giving Jerusalem to Israel on a plate by the Trump administration will expose the lie being spread around regarding the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and could even badly tarnish the image of, and even put at risk, those Arab leaders who are presently working actively for an Israeli-Arab-US alliance.

And if Trump thinks that this rash act will make him very popular among Israelis who will remain indebted to him for the rest of their lives, he is mistaken. And this because Israelis will not take it not as a favour to them, but rather as their absolute right, and will make yet more demands on Trump, and will criticize him for not doing all that he was supposed to do. We know that Barak Obama did so much for Israelis but Benjamin Netanyahu openly canvassed for Obama's rival for the second term election. Israeli leaders even contemptuously rejected his pleas to 'to agree to a freeze on Israeli settlements (at least for the duration of peace talks) for our sake' so that the peace process could be started in Palestine. Rather than agreeing to this very reasonable request, the Israelis felt incensed over it.

Normally, friendships and relations between people/states are based on mutual consideration, give-and-take. However, Israel's relations with others are peculiar in that they are based on take-take-take and no-give. I give below examples to prove my point:

A young American girl Rachel Corrie stood in front of a Palestinian's house in the territory illegally occupied by Israel, in clear view of the bulldozer operator who had come to demolish the house to make way for Israeli settlers. The noble girl had hoped that her gesture might save the Palestinian's home on the land which rightly belonged to him and on which he had lived for generations. However, the bulldozer operator went ahead with the demolition and killed her in the process. Surely, the Israeli police present on the occasion could have arrested her, gone ahead with the demolition and released her later. But they rather made the occasion a lesson for others in order to deter them from coming to the help of Palestinians.

During Arab-Israeli war, an unarmed US research vessel USS Liberty was in the vicinity, prominently displaying the US flag. Some Israeli jets even made low-level flights over it to confirm its identity and of course they would have been in no doubt about the nationality of sailors on it. And yet Israel launched a fierce, combined air/sea assault on the vehicle that killed 34 American sailors and wounded another 171, while extensively damaging the vessel, just short of sinking it. If the Israelis did not like its presence there, they could have fired warning shots and forced it to move away, instead of committing this needless brutality. Again, the US government which does react ferociously to such incidents remained muted on this killing since protesting strongly about it would have upset the AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbies which rule the US through their puppets installed in the White House and other important institutions. And the US government hushed up the matter after payment of a nominal compensation by the Israeli government. I am sure US aid to Israel would have been sufficiently enhanced to make sure that the burden of this extra payment did not fall on the Israeli government budget.

Coming back to the matter of recognition by the US of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, it will not even make Israeli leaders feel obliged to the US government and would rather encourage them to demand yet more from the US leaders and the fact such acts would damage the US image abroad would be of no concern to them. As it is, a US General is on record for saying words to the effect that the US policy in respect of Israel creates problems for them in the Muslim world.

And concluding the comment, I would say that while excessive favours to Israel by US leaders may bring some personal benefits to them, such philanthropy costs a great deal to the the US sate and its citizens, and not just in monetary terms.

In his article the writer has just claimed that on top of ambition to dominate the Middle East region, Iranian government is now planning to dominate the entire world.

And to confirm his point, he quoted the following statements:

"The commander of Iran’s navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, said it “will berth in friendly states in Latin America and the Gulf of Mexico in the near future... We are not faced with any restriction for deploying in the seas, and anywhere we feel that we have interests to develop ties, we will certainly deploy there and we enjoy this power too.”

"Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently emphasized the need for the navy to be a major player in the region and beyond".

And this he presents as a real danger to the rest of the world in view of the fact - as seen and declared by him - that in terms of naval strength, even now Iran stands fourth after North Korea, China and the US in terms of naval strength.

Of course, he has taken his figures from an obscure survey under the link quoted below which in selective cases, has probably counted even small fishing and other ordinary boats and treated them at par with destroyers in order to achieve the desired results.

However, I found Iran nowhere in the list of ten strongest navies in the world as given in the following link, with US at the top, which seems to be in line with the actual position and makes sense in view of the fact that US is a super power, even though on the decline now.

Also, if Iranian navy held fourth position in the world, its top commander, if not Admiral of the Fleet, would at least be a full Admiral, or at least a Vice-Admiral and not a fourth-ranking officer holding the position of Rear-Admiral.

And as for its overall military strength, Iran managed to hold Iraq to a draw, but definitely could not defeat it. And that hardly proves that Iran was capable of taking over not only the region but the whole world and that, too, pretty soon.

And the writer also refers to Iran navy as a devil which started harassing 'US, British and regional ships'.

However, what we have for a fact is that this was the a US commander who shot down, in in Iranian airspace, over Iranian territorial waters and on flight's usual flight path, an Iranian civilian airliner (flight 655) killing all 290 passengers on board. The following link gives the details :

The excuse given was that the officer commanding the US vessel mistook the Airbus A 300 as an Iranian fighter jet coming to sink his ship. How convenient!

I know all writers, intentionally or unintentionally, tend to be a bit selective in picking and quoting facts and figures in order to build up their narrative. However, the tendency to make facts a total casualty or rather fatality and to build up the whole case on fiction or near-fiction is most disgusting because it could lead to disastrous consequences..

While discussing Faizabad dharna and what caused it, one is left with no option but to blame the dishonesty and complete absence of governance on the part of the government.

Instead of admitting its serious lacking in essential fields, and its astronomical greed and corruption - as highlighted by the Panama papers - to be behind its predicament, the Sharif brothers are trying to create an impression that it was the armed forces, acting through the superior judiciary, which was causing all the problems for it.

And failing to elicit any support from the masses, Nawaz Sharif went to Saudi Arabia to seek help, but got no response even there. Thus, the only help for Nawaz Sharif could come from the Western governments whose sympathy and support he could elicit by appearing to be 'liberal' and for a start, his government fiddled with the declaration about Khatm-e-Nabuwat, after which he would have probably blunted the anti-blasphemy laws, as desired by the US government.

However, the conspiracy misfired and Sharifs had a dharna on their hand.

And being opportunists to the core, the Sharifs tried to use it to advance their sinister agenda.

Just how could under two thousand persons travel all the way from Lahore to Islamabad and keep the country's capital paralyzed for over three weeks, despite Federal Interior Miniser Ahsan Iqbal's claim that it could be ended within two hours. And all this time, the dharna participants were kept in fair degree of comfort, with no attempts to even disrupt their operation.

And finally, when the action against Dharna started, Ahsan Iqbal did not own it and took pains to paint a picture that he did it only on the orders of the court. Of course, such a half-hearted approach could hardly bring results and the operation failed - as it was intended to be - with law enforcers and the government thoroughly insulted, and the law enforcers received injuries on top of insult. Also, quite a few Police vehicles got burned out and the public property, including metro station and private cars got extensively vandalized. Also, the dharna attracted support from all over the country and became something of a country-wide protest.

The sense of responsibility of Ahsan Iqbal can be judged from the fact that he claimed that, as a Federal Interior Minister, his responsibility was limited to Islamabad capital area and disturbances in Rawalpindi were not his responsibility. Surely, with Punjab government also in PML-N hands, there was nothing to stop him from coordinating his activities with Punjab law enforcers which he could easily arrange and , in fact, was duty-bound to do.

And then the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly advised that the job of ending the disturbances be handed over to the army and the government actually called out the military to control the rioters.

And this makes one feel that the plans were there right from the beginning to first of all spoil the situation to the maximum and then to call in the army, putting it in direct confrontation with the masses, which was sure to tarnish the image of the armed forces.

However, the COAS and his advisers were smart enough to see the overall picture, detect the conspiracy and managed to bring the situation under control through negotiations with the protesters, which success turned the tables on the Sharifs who proved no good even at conspiring. This clearly proves Sharifs' total failure in governance, leaving their specialty only in the field of corruption in which field they remain unmatched.

And there are lot of writers, and even a judge, who criticized army's role as a mediator, claiming - and not totally without justification - that the armed forces job was to control and contain the violence and not to act as a mediator. True, but then the armed forces should have been involved in the issue only if the civilian law enforcers had used all the resources at their disposal and still failed to bring the situation under control. However, the continuation of dharna for over three weeks, despite Ahsan Iqbal's declaration that it could be finished in two hours, clearly belies it. We know that Sharifs' government intentionally let the situation deteriorate to an extent where bringing it under control would have required excessive use of force and caused extensive loss of life and property, and then passed on the responsibility to the armed forces to do the unpleasant job and get blamed for the consequences. In such circumstances, just why should the armed forces willingly fall into the trap set for them by the Sharifs?

However, it is pertinent to mention here that the Lahore High Court, taking a comprehensive and balanced view of the military's approach, was full of praise for it for successfully averting a major disaster.

Had the armed forces done what the Sharifs wanted them to do, the whole country would have been destabilized. And the resulting turbulence would have been loved by the US Defence Secretary Mad Dog Jim Mattis, who is visiting Pakistan today to do a bit of barking here and there in an attempt to intimidate the armed forces into doing his bidding.

Of course, looking around, we see that after ravaging Iraq, Libya and Syria to its hearts' content, the US and its chums are now planning to start their dirty game against Pakistan which, as the strongest militarily, and the only nuclear power in the Muslim world, is just not acceptable to them. And Pakistan's close relations with China are additional irritant to them. And Indian animosity towards Pakistan, and its seeing Pakistan as an obstacle to the fulfillment of its dream of dominating and controlling the region, eclipsing even China with US help, make it also regard a strong Pakistan as a threat to its designs.

As for the US, after the costly Iraq invasion, bitter opposition arose within the country to sending of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and spending trillions of dollars. And then the devilish brains in the west developed an economy model to achieve their objectives at low cost. And now, instead of launching a direct invasion on countries, using soldiers from the US and its chums, they create and use divisions within the country and set them against each other, and limit their involvement to adding fuel to the fire, started by them in the victim countries, by supplying arms, ammunition and providing other financial help to the combatants. And the US and its gang successfully employed this model in Libya and Syria, and managed to destabilize both states at costs thousand times lower than in Iraq. And since they deceive their citizens into believing that they are running humanitarian missions in the victim countries, there is not much public opposition to their devilish projects either.

And I believe the attempt by Sharifs to first aggravate the situation and then to involve the armed forces in the unpleasant task which, if force was used, would have created ideal situation for the US and its chums to create Iraq, Libya and Syria like condition in Pakistan. Of course, the US and its gang would have loved Sharifs for this and would have tried their best to bail them out.

So, exercising utmost caution, the armed forces have not only averted great loss of life and property, but have also prevented a Libya or Syria like disaster occurring in Pakistan.

I think, instead of criticizing the armed forces over the role played by them in ending the dharna - like some sponsored agents of Sharifs, and others who can't see the overall picture, are doing - we ought to express our gratitude to, and congratulate them for a job well-done.

The writer concludes his article saying "Similarly, the PML-N is the embodiment of patronage and dynastic politics which produces sleaze. Controlling sleaze is necessary but only via civilian accountability tools and sound verdicts. But trying to demolish the PML-N instantly can affect Punjab’s broader political economy that thrives on patronage" and adds "This all thus requires patient handling rather than crude political engineering by arrogant elements."

However, we know that negating the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court judges , and using its majority in the parliament, the PML-N legislated to allow a disqualified Nawaz Sharif to head a political party,

On top of that, as reported in the media, the PML-N government eliminated the asset declaration column and excluded the column requiring declaration of dual nationality from the application form for aspiring Parliamentarians.

And the above steps taken in a hurry clearly show that the PML-N government is prepared to use its majority in the National Assembly to bulldoze any legislation that is there to stop its corrupt, inept and illegal measures and is preparing even to amend laws governing judiciary and military to bring both under its thumb.

And the Peoples Party, while pretending to be hostile towards PML-N, does in fact act as its B team, and at provincial level, replicates the misdeeds of the ruling party.

When the government structure has decayed so much, and is still getting worse with each passing day, only someone raving mad, or perhaps Dr. Niaz Murtaza could hope that it could be put in order with a bit of tinkering here and there. What is actually needed is a major overhaul, with eighty percent of the essential components replaced.

In fact, what is needed is a fresh general election, with eligibility conditions strictly applied so as to weed out the corrupt, criminal elements who infest the present political system and form nearly eighty percent of it. A fresh breed of Parliamentarians, forming dedicated government and effective opposition, is what could put things in order, bring back the looted wealth and place the country on a path to progress, with Supreme Court overseeing the process and armed forces, not actually taking over government, but making sure that Supreme Court's directions are followed..

Perhaps the young and inexperienced Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) rates his abilities much higher than the circumstances warrant and seems to believe too much in his personal charm. And that has made him believe that he can use Israel to the full in the pursuit of his own plans.

Maybe he doesn't realize that Israel is only its own friend and whenever its interests are comprised even slightly, it reacts fiercely against whosoever causes it, least mindful of whether it is a supposed friend or foe. And I give below a few examples to prove my point.

Among the Muslim states, Turkey is one country that had closest and warmest relations with Israel. However, when Turks joined an international armada which was taking humanitarian supplies to besieged Gaza, the Israeli commandos attacked the Turkish vessel while it was still in international waters and killed nine Turks in cold-blood. And what is worse, Israeli prime minister even refused to apologize for it and this soured the relations between the two countries. Much later, on the insistence of Barak Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey and put up a small compensation package, paving the way to restoration of diplomatic relations between the two former allies.

A young American girl, Rachel Corrie stood in front of a Palestinian's home, in full view of the bulldozer operator who had come to demolish the house in the Palestinian territory illegally occupied by Israel. The girl was hoping that her gesture might prevent the demolition of the house, but she was wrong. The bulldozer operator just went ahead with his mission and demolished the house, burying her in the debris. Surely, the Israeli police present at the place in large numbers could have arrested her instead of just going ahead with the killing. However, the Israeli authorities wanted to make it a lesson for others and to deter them from daring to come to the help of Palestinians.

And American government, which raises a hell on mistreatment of even a single American national by any other state, remained silent because raising a protest over the killing would have upset Israeli authorities who own and operate the American government administration through the pro-Israel lobbies.

And there was the case of unarmed American research vessel USS Liberty which was in the vicinity during the Arab-Israeli war. The vessel was prominently flying the American flag and the Israeli jet fighters even made low level flights over it in order to identity it. Yet, they launched a ferocious combined air/naval attack on the vessel which killed and wounded over 200 American sailors. In this case as well, Americans made no 'fuss' and settled for a nominal financial compensation package the amount of which would have been promised, and indeed reimbursed to Israel through increased aid so as not to burden the Israeli budget.

If Israel can do all this to Turkey and even the US, there should be no doubt as to how it will treat Saudi Arabia, after it has used KSA resources and manpower to fight its war with Iran?

So, the army chief Gen. Qamar Jawed Bajwa should hurry up and start his campaign to diffuse the situation and prevent the impending disaster by persuading both Iran and Saudi Arabia not to take their dispute to a point of no return and instead settle for a peaceful solution of the problem. In any case, staying aloof is not an option for Pakistan because if the disaster is allowed to happen, the next target would be Pakistan in preparation for which the Americans have already started shifting their well-trained Daesh and other terrorists from Syria/Iraq to Afghanistan apart from using the indigenous resources.

There have been allegations in the print and electronic media about the 'meddling' by the Sindh Rangers in the political scene in Karachi, and more so in respect of the recent drama about the coming together of PSP and MQM-P.

However, the DG Rangers flatly denied that the establishment played any part (in the unsuccessful attempt) at the formation of an alliance between MQM-P and PSP, which is in quite a contrast to the clear-cut statement of Mustafa Kamal, and his version stands somewhat corroborated by the DG Rangers remark "a military official might have shared an opinion that an alliance would be in the interest of the city, but this is not our institutional policy."

Quite obviously, the 'opinion sharing' would have been done by a senior official and if he was convinced of it, it is more than likely that he would have tried to shove it down the throats of leaders of concerned and cornered parties on other occasions as well. After all, Urdu-speaking community is the one that officials feel free to take liberty with, without fear of serious consequences. And the well-documented case of torture and death of MQM senior member Aftab Ahmed in Rangers custody - for which no befitting punishment has been announced - would not have occurred in pursuance of any 'institutional policy'.

Moreover, we saw that when Sindh Rangers wanted to start Karachi-like operations in interior Sindh, they were stopped from doing so. And we know that Punjab government also did not allow them a free hand.

The present DG Rangers also rejected Mustafa Kamal's assertion that MQM-P was formed in former DG Rangers office, saying "If MQM was created by the armed forces, would we still be pursuing cases against them?"

The DG Rangers also stated "The cases registered against MQM leaders Farooq Sattar, Amir Khan and others, following the events of August 22, 2016, were still ongoing and our lawyers still appear before the court to pursue these cases."

Rangers continue to hound MQM leaders in respect of a speech made by a drunk, lunatic Altaf Hussain over whom the MQM members in Pakistan had not control. And this despite their rejection of the speech, making a complete break from him and the London setup as well as presenting a resolution in the Sindh Assembly against it. What else could this be called except unfair pressure tactics? After all, Ayub Khan, who derailed the democratic process by setting the trend of martial laws, created circumstances for dismemberment of Pakistan through his mistreatment and deprivation of majority Bengalis, and did much the same to Urdu-speaking people, forcing them to realize their separate ethnicity about which they had not bothered about for three decades. Thus cornered, the Urdu-speaking community had no choice but to get organized in their self-defence and for survival against various ethnic alliances which were formed to corner them, and which circumstances gave rise to APMSO and MQM. And Ayub's nominee General Yahya presided over the dismemberment of Pakistan in the most shameful manner.

And yet, neither Ayub Khan nor Yahya Khan were taken to courts.

No doubt Pakistanis and more so Karachiites appreciate the efforts of Sindh Rangers and police who brought much-needed relief to Karachi, and in the process, gave many sacrifices. However, this success does not entitle them to take liberty with MQM-P members. Also, it is not a victory of such tremendous proportions that they should feel like reminding Karachiites of it every now and then because, after all, it is a 'victory' against a party whose members offered no physical resistance to them. After all, things are far from satisfactory in Balochistan - and this putting it mildly - despite best efforts by various groups of law enforcers.

On the evening of 9th November, we were treated to quite a show where PSP's Syed Mustafa Kamal and MQM-P's Farooq sat together and announced some joint programmes for the future. Whiie Farooq Sattar gave clear understanding of close cooperation between the two in future - without in fact talking of an outright merger - Mustafa Kamal was more specific and declared that the two parties will fight the next general elections together, with one election symbol and with one party name, which won't be MQM. And this obviously meant that both PSP and MQM-P will merge, and losing their individual identities, will in future operate under a new name that was still to be decided. And while Farooq Sattar did not applaud the announcement of merger, the absence of his outright rebuttal meant that perhaps MQM also was not averse to such a move, which was being considered and was awaiting final decision.

I strongly believe that having been relieved of the undesirables within their fold through the fierce operation by Rangers and police, the coming together of MQM-P and PSP would be in the best interests of the parties, the country, as well as of the city and its residents which has the Urdu-speaking community as the largest single group, but has also significant presence of other ethnicity, to all of whom the city belongs. In fact, I feel MQM-Haqiqi should also join the grouping in the interest of the city and its residents and indeed for their own sake.

However, only hours later, Farooq Sattar backed out of the arrangement, claiming that the MQM-P will not merge with any party and will contest the next elections under the MQM name, with kite as its election symbol.

I would have thought that the event must have followed months of close consultation between the leaders of two parties - which was also admitted by the two leaders - during which at the least the basic point about both parties losing their identity to acquire a new, common one, ought to have been sorted out. If not then Farooq Sattar should have clarified the point while Mustafa Kamal was announcing it as an 'agreed' point.

One might even think that perhaps Farooq Sattar, while not too happy with a name-change, was not strongly opposed to it either and had hoped that once the thing was announced, other prominent MQM leaders who had not been taken into confidence on this issue will also go along with it. However, in the face of strong opposition, he has changed his stance.

And that is odd because, after all, a name is just a label and what really matters is the quality of the product and its benefits to the masses. In any case, MQM has changed from Mohajir Qaumi Movement to Mutahidda Qaumi Movement and now has a suffix P attached to it. So, if a change of name at this stage could prove to be a uniting factor and be in the larger interest of the people it represents, why dismiss it altogether? And even if the name-change amounts to swallowing a bitter pill, why not do it in the larger interest of just about every one.

We all know that the courage and fighting capability of our armed forces is known and acknowledged world-wide, and the fact that it has kept at bay the forces of India which is about five times our size proves this.

We also know that ethnic bias of Ayub Khan against Bengalis (and Urdu-speaking people of course) and his mistreatment of them created circumstances for the separation of the eastern wing. And his nominee Gen. Yahya Khan, instead of undoing the injustice, or arranging a peaceful separation if that had become unavoidable, sent armed forces to East Pakistan to subdue and 'punish' Bengalis. However, when the Indian army moved in, the forces under Lt-Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan (Tiger) Niazi surrendered. They could have demonstrated courage and fought on to the last man, but that would not have altered the outcome; only fatalities would have increased enormously. Having no air cover, cut off from West Pakistan with no hope of getting supplies and reinforcements and the indigenous population dead against them, they had absolutely no chance. And that means that the tragic effects of initially not giving majority Bengalis their due share, and adding to it the stupidity of sending armed forces to fight a war which they had no chance of winning was bad enough as it is. Adding to it the ultimate folly of fighting 'to the last man' would only have magnified the stupidity.

There are lessons in the above for MQM as well. The fact that APMSO and MQM were not formed until a good three decades after the creation of Pakistan clearly means that the Mohajirs- I prefer the term Urdu-speaking people - were not too keen on projecting their separate ethnicity. However, the squeeze put on them by Ayub Khan - made worse by the father-and-son team after the Urdu-speaking people supported Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan - forced the Urdu-speaking people to organize for their self defence and survival. And the fact that the police in those days comprised almost wholly of people from Punjab did not help matters either. However, the MQM which was formed basically to seek justice for Urdu-speaking people was in time hijacked by some unscrupulous leaders who strayed away from their main objective and started enjoying power for its own sake, and misusing it to commit excesses and even for making illicit financial gains. And the result is that the party has lost the overwhelming support that it once enjoyed among the Urdu-speaking people, except for those hardliners who live in the vicinity of Ninezero and perhaps in Liaquatabad. And the net result is that the MQM now stands badly splintered and decimated, with its demise not too far away, in case it fails to learn its lessons and take corrective action to avert the impending disaster.

So if Lt-Gen. Tiger Niazi could swallow a bitter pill, why can't MQM-P leaders to the same, when the move is expected to ease things up for just about everyone. A real leader should lead and not be dictated to by the hardliners within the party.

During the joint press conference, Farooq Sattar also vowed to restore the respect deserved by the term 'Bhai'.

I do hope that this was in response to Mustafa Kamal calling him Farooq Sattar Saheb, and not Farooq Bhai which is the normal practice within the party. And I sure hope he did not refer to the Big Bhai Altaf Hussain.

No one disputes that APMSO and MQM got formed due to long, difficult struggle by Altaf Hussain during which Altaf Hussain made many sacrifices, including losing losing his brother and a nephew. As such, it is natural for the MQM followers to have a special feeling for him in their hearts. Unfortunately, all this respect went to his head and made Altaf Hussain more of a ruthless dictator in place of a leader seeking due rights and respect for the Urdu speaking people. And in order to maintain his position at the top, he was alleged even to have committed uncalled for atrocities. And his hard-line policies brought him into direct confrontation with the law enforcers most of whom seem to be from Punjab, which province had shown ethnic feelings against Urdu-speaking migrants as early as 1947. And as the story goes, Altaf Hussain was bundled off to London where he has been living ever-since.

Removed from his people and living an unnatural life in London, Altaf Hussain seems to have resorted to heavy drinking. And over time, all these factors have turned him into a mental wreck which fact gets reflected in his incoherent rants broadcast live to his followers in Pakistan. The fact that Altaf Hussain often apologized the very next day in respect of many of his speeches only serves to confirm that he was not in his senses while making those speeches. And during his last speech, he crossed all limits and even openly talked against Pakistan. Of course, cases have been filed against him, and even against MQM leaders despite their firm rejection of the speech and making a vompletel break from Altaf Hussain and his London setup.

At this stage, I would say that Altaf Hussain has exacted much more than a fair price for his services to the Urdu-speaking people, and the community does not stand indebted to him any longer. In fact, Altaf Hussain could be termed a big debtor to the Urdu-speaking community because of causing more problems for them as compared to the benefits he managed to bestow on the community. t

So, instead of showing too much sentimentality towards Altaf Hussain and the name MQM, the leaders of the Urdu-speaking community should concentrate what is in the best interest of the community, as well as for their fellow residents of other ethnicity in Karachi, Sindh and elsewhere in Pakistan.

I do not often agree with what Gen. Musharraf says. However, I do think that he was right to suggest that since MQM has got a bad name, the Mohajirs should unite under a different name. After all, the alleged involvement of senior MQM leaders in atrocities like Baldia factory fire hardly serves to establish the democratic credentials of the party and these association would not be forgotten by the rest of Pakistanis. So, I do feel that adopting a new name was not such a bad idea after all. Moreover, such a move could also make them a bit less 'unacceptable' to the powers that be who have become totally opposed to this name. And they seem to have been given a free hand, which is perhaps far too free for the comfort of the Urdu-speaking community. This points gets confirmed through the statement of Mustafa Kamal who said that he got 70 Urdu-speaking people released from Rangers custody. Now, if they had committed serious crimes, why were they released? And on the other hand, if they were innocent, why were they apprehended in the first place? The thing looks ugly both ways.

We also know that despite admission of torture and death of MQM senior member Aftab Ahmed, no befitting punishment was announced publicly. The atrocity would not have been committed without clearance from higher ups. And while no one expected some army-backed Rangers officials to be sent to firing squad, some befitting action ought to have been taken against those who committed the excesses. And we know that the then Rangers director general was later promoted as a Lt-Gen and given a prestigious position. Obviously the move would have given 'encouragement' to others am

We often hear Rangers officials making comments like "Days are gone when Karachi could be shut up on one call" or "Altaf Hussain congratulated killers of PSP followers." No wonder the law enforcers have brought the Karachiites a much-needed relief, and gained a victory against MQM, but it is against a group which offered no physical resistant" and, as such, it is not worth-mentioning every now and then directly or indirectly.

The statements also create an impression of a personal bias. I wish the law enforcers could announce that they have gained a complete victory and totally disabled those elements which are alleged to have killed 70,000 Pakistanis including 8,000 soldiers, with a serving Major General, on top of doing $120 billion damage to the country's economy, and that the "days are gone when they could stage another attack anywhere in the country." But of course, that position has not been reached yet' neither is there any a possibility of accomplishment of this goal anytime soon. Incidentally, these militants and terrorists happen to be the creation of an imprudent, over-ambitious General

ziaul Haq who, in order to prolong his rule, unwisely involved Pakistan in the US revenge war with the Soviet Union, to fight which these half-baked mujahids were created.

Coming back to the change of NQM's name, while it is indeed desirable, it should come from within the party and no attempt should be made by authorities to force it on them. And there is a definite need for the army high command to advise their seconded officers in the Rangers to do their duty and not to get involved in 'political re-engineering' which is none of their business and in which field they have no expertise as proved by failure of such initiatives by some imprudent Generals in the past.

I hope good sense prevails all around though I do accept that given the state of mind of our people, that is a bit too much to ask. However, having been halved in a mere 24 years, if we do not rise to the occasion even at this late hour, and continue behaving irresponsibly even in the circumstances where, after plundering Iraq, Libya and Syria, the international powers are bent on dismembering the only nuclear-armed state in the Muslim world - and Iran of course - and things are not quite normal even within Pakistan, then we would forfeit the right to continue as an independent, sovereign state.

I do hope and pray that our arrogant and imprudent leaders do not take things to that stage.